Our Corporate Officers
Thomas Patterson
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Patterson joined the Company in May, 1998 as Chief Financial Officer. In 2000, he assumed responsibility for managing the Company’s San Joaquin Valley operations in addition to the centralized corporate functions. Mr. Patterson organized the ESOP buy-out of the Company’s former shareholders in January, 2004, and became Chairman, CEO & CFO when the buy-out was completed.
Prior to joining Kimberlite, Mr. Patterson owned and operated PATTERSON FINANCIAL SERVICES (“PFS”), which provided financial intermediation and advisory services to corporate and governmental clients. Mr. Patterson has been involved with the security alarm industry since 1989; the industry was a focus area for PFS when it was launched in 1994. PFS worked as investment banker to Kimberlite between 1995 and 1998, and was instrumental in arranging the Company’s 1997 leveraged buy-out.
Prior to launching PFS, Tom held senior corporate finance positions with General Electric Capital’s Corporate Finance Group and First Bank System’s Media and Communications Division. At GE Capital, Mr. Patterson was the Company’s primary representative to the telecommunications industries, where he worked on more than $1.5 billion of leveraged-acquisition and early-stage equity investment opportunities in the cellular, paging and security alarm industries. Additionally, he spent three years in GE Capital’s Corporate Restructuring Group, where he specialized in providing de novo financing to troubled and bankrupt companies in the general corporate sector. At First Bank, Patterson co-managed the establishment and operation of First Bank System’s media and communications lending effort and was active in the cable and broadcast television and publishing industries. Prior to joining First Bank, Patterson managed the operations of a new-build cable television system in St. Paul, Minnesota and seven surrounding communities for Continental Cablevision, Inc.
Mr. Patterson holds a BA in Political Science with a Minor in Economics from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and an MBA with a Major in Finance and Minors in Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategic Planning from the Wharton Graduate School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania
U. Bertram (“Bert”) Ellis, Jr.
Board Member & Chairman, Compensation Committee
U. Bertram (Bert) Ellis, Jr. has been an active entrepreneur in the media and technology industries over the past 25 years, having founded and operated numerous companies, both private and public. He has managed high growth companies and achieved significant returns for his investors. Ellis primarily manages acquisitions, strategic relationships, and fund raising for his companies but is also integrally involved in programming, sales and operations, engineering and capital expenditures.
Ellis currently serves as the CEO of Ellis Communications, which owns KDOC-TV, a full-service independent television station serving Los Angeles, CA. and KAME-TV in Reno, NV. Ellis also serves as a Partner in Ellis-McQuary-Stanley LLC, a consulting, and investment firm focused on media and technology companies. Ellis-McQuary-Stanley owns Brash Music, a record label representing amongst other artists, Aaron Shust, who’s song My Savior My God is currently #1 in the nation on the Christian music charts. Ellis is an investor and serves as a consultant to Massive, a start-up technology company that delivers dynamic advertising into videogames. Massive was recently sold to Microsoft for $175M.
From 2001 until 2002, Ellis served as the Vice-Chairman and a Director of Scient, Inc. The November 2001 merger of Scient Corp. and iXL Enterprises formed Scient. Ellis founded iXL in 1996 and served as its Chairman until the merger with Scient. IXL and then Scient were IT consulting firms focused on internet integrations for Fortune 500 companies. From a standing start in 1996, iXL and then Scient upon the merger, grew to a global company with a combined market cap of almost $6B with a $1B per year revenue run rate, 58 offices and over 6000 employees at the height of the internet era. Unfortunately, Scient fell victim to the technology downturn and was significantly downsized and sold to Avenue A/Razorfish in September, 2002.
Prior to founding iXL, Ellis founded and served from 1993 to 1996 as President and CEO of Ellis Communications, an Atlanta-based company that owned and operated thirteen television stations, two radio stations and Raycom, a sports production and marketing firm. Ellis Communications was sold to Raycom Media in September, 1996 for $840M.
From 1986 to 1992, Ellis founded and served as President, CEO and COO of Act III Broadcasting, a broadcast group comprised of eight Fox-affiliate television stations. Act III Broadcasting was sold to Sullivan Broadcasting in 1995 for $530M.
Prior to Act III, Ellis served as the Director of Marketing and the Director of National Cable Sales for Turner Broadcasting and prior to that as the Director of Program Budgeting for Home Box Office. Ellis also worked for 2 years each with Wachovia Bank and Centennial Development Company during his early business career.
Ellis has previously served on the Board of Directors of Promus Hotel Corp, First Union Bank of Ga, and WebMD. Ellis was one of the founding investors in WebMD. Ellis is also a founder and special limited partner of NeoCarta, a $275M technology-focused venture fund.
Ellis also serves on numerous civic and charitable boards including the Board of Trustees of The University of Virginia Graduate Business School Foundation and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.
Mr. Ellis holds a MBA from the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia. Ellis resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and two daughters, both of which are now in college.
Barbara J. Briggs
Board Member & Member, Compensation Committee
Ms. Briggs is well-known to longtime Kimberlite employees. She was instrumental in forming Kimberlite in 1986, when the owners of Sonitrol of Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Contra Costa County and San Francisco pooled their assets to form Kimberlite. Upon its formation, Ms. Briggs became Kimberlite’s first President, and served in that capacity until 1990. Under Ms. Briggs’ leadership, Kimberlite acquired Sonitrol of Southern Alameda County and Sonitrol of Stockton, establishing 90% of Kimberlite’s current footprint.
Since 1975, Ms. Briggs has been a co-owner of Sonitrol Security, Inc., the Sonitrol distributor and sub-franchisor for Northern California and Hawaii. As such, she was instrumental in establishing all of the franchises currently owned by Kimberlite (except Sonitrol of NW Los Angeles/Ventura Co) in addition to Sonitrol of Sacramento, Sonitrol of San Jose and Sonitrol of Hawaii. Ms. Briggs almost single-handedly waged a five-year battle against AT&T, ultimately winning a lawsuit accusing AT&T of abusive pricing practices and reducing the cost of leased telephone lines, which at that time were required to operate a Sonitrol security system, for Sonitrol dealers across the country. Ms. Briggs was awarded the Sonitrol National Dealers’ Associations Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
Ms .Briggs is currently the sole proprietor of Bodega Bay Coffee Company, in Muskogee, OK.